Impingement cooling systems have been used with turbine machinery to cool various types of components such as casings, buckets, nozzles, and the like. Impingement cooling systems cool the turbine components via an airflow so as to maintain adequate clearances between the components and to promote adequate component lifetime. One issue with known impingement cooling systems is the ability to maintain a uniform heat transfer coefficient across non-uniform or contoured surfaces. Maintaining constant heat transfer coefficients generally requires that the overall shape of the impingement plate follows the contours of the surface to be cooled. Producing a contoured impingement plate, however, may be costly and may result in uneven cooling flows therein.
There is therefore a desire for an improved impingement cooling system. Such an improved impingement cooling system may provide constant heat transfer coefficients over a contoured surface in a simplified and low cost configuration while maintaining adequate cooling efficiency.